Wheaton, Ill. – Favor Ezewuzie of the Wheaton College women's track and field team has been named the 2021 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Woman of the Year and will now represent the conference as a nominee for the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Ezewuzie was chosen through a voting process conducted by the CCIW's Senior Woman Administrators and Faculty Athletics Representatives. Ezewuzie is the third Wheaton student-athlete to be named the CCIW's Woman of the year, joining Sarah Richardson (Women's Soccer) in 2007-08 and Kelsey Graham (Women's Soccer) in 2014-15. Richardson was one of 30 finalists for the award in 2008 and Graham was one of nine finalists for the award in 2015.

Ezewuzie is now one of two CCIW nominees for the 2020-21 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. She and Illinois Wesleyan women's track and field athlete Ayana Blair will represent the CCIW as its two nominees for the award. Ezewuzie and Blair's nominations move onto the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee, which is made up of representatives from the NCAA membership. The committee chooses the top 30 honorees including 10 from each division. From the top 30, the committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses from among those nine to determine the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year, which will be announced this fall.

The 2021 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Champion in the women's 100-meter hurdles, Ezewuzie earned a total of three All-American awards at the 2021 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championship in May as she also had top-eight finishes in the 100-meter dash (4th) and the 200-meter dash (5th). She is a 15-time All-American across individual events and relays in both indoor and outdoor track & field in her career. She is also a 17-time CCIW champion in individual events. Ezewuzie is the only CCIW women's student-athlete to be named the conference's Indoor Track Athlete of the Meet three times and she is also a two-time winner of the CCIW Outdoor Track Athlete of the Meet award. She is Four-time United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Midwest Region Track Athlete of the Year, with the 2021 and 2019 USTFCCCA D3 Midwest Region Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year award and was named the 2020 and 2019 USTFCCCA D3 Midwest Region Indoor Track Athlete of the Year recognition.

Ezewuzie graduated Magna Cum Laude from Wheaton in May of 2021 with a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and a 3.71 cumulative grade point average. She is a nine-time Academic All-CCIW selection, a five-time recipient of the CCIW's Jack Swartz Academic All-Conference Award, a member of Wheaton's Dean's List, and a two time CoSIDA Academic All-American. She was also a recipient of the 2019 Dorothy B. Dixon Scholarship, awarded to one student in the Education Department at Wheaton as a merit scholarship for academic achievement.

She was a Sisterhood Coordinator for the Black Student Union where she provided spiritual and emotional mentoring more than 40 black women and also organized events for empowerment and attended meetings to seek improvement for all black students. Ezewuzie led a nutrition information night for female athletes and worked to provide resources for girls struggling with eating disorders. She also mentored 10 freshmen minority women to promote a safe space for new students, led spiritual mentoring and growth for four freshmen women, led captains practices for the track & field team, was a college tutor for fourth and fifth grade students, planned and prepared musical responsibilities for Wheaton's chapel services, and coordinated service projects throughout the city of Chicago.